I launched my Blog (originally at www.mychi.us) in March 2007 which would mean I am heading into my 6th Year. Wow, time flies when you’re having fun. So before we start 2013 in earnest I thought I would share with you the 10 most popular posts of 2012 here on the blog. I published 61 posts in 2012 (slightly up on 2011) with a fairly even split of new work and my weekly Twitter Digests that I re-introduced in the middle of the year. I also published a handful of informational/tutorial orientated articles.
#01 5 Steps to Matting a Fine Art Photographic Print
At #1 was this tutorial on how I matte my prints before sending them on to my customers. As I mentioned in the original post “I was very surprised when I started my research for this. While there are numerous articles that cover the preparation and printing of a photograph there was very little on proper, archival quality matting.”
The post provided both my customers and readers a detailed insight into the best way to matte photographic prints to ensure maximum print longevity. Given the number of times this article has been read it would appear it was time well spent and I am delighted it proved useful to so many of you.
#02 My New iMac | Unboxing and First Impressions
At #2 was this article from September 2011 outlining my 1st impressions along with some images of my newly acquired 27″ iMac. While it was still very early days with the iMac at the time of the post I did have some time to do some benchmarks against the outgoing 2006 MacPro which were very impressive. Of course its all a bit old hat now given Apple have released their new razor-thin 2012 iMacs. However I have no intention of upgrading anytime soon, and when I do it will not be to another iMac… but that is a topic for another post.
#03 A Donegal Seascape | Wild Seas at Fanad Lighthouse – Donegal, Ireland
This image which I posted in October 2011 and in fact showed up in my Top 10 Posts from last year continues to be one of my most popular here on the blog and also in terms of print orders. At the time I described the conditions for this image as “It started out as a heavily overcast, sullen day with high winds and non-stop drizzle. Perfect weather conditions for a landscape photographer :p Not to be deterred though I packed up the car and headed out to Fanad Head and Lighthouse, a spot I had on my plan before I even traveled to Donegal.”
#04 My New Toy has Arrived | 27-inch iMac
Pre-dating the iMac post above by 10 days this post outlined some of my computing history; the fact I ‘was’ a windows user that wanted to move to apple, the eventual move to x86 allowing that, my very 1st Mac (a MacPro in 2006) and the reasons behind my move away from a workstation class machine to an all-in-one solution of an iMac. I also laid out the bench-marking schedule I planned to use for testing the new iMac.
#05 My Top 10 Favourite Images of 2011
Similarly to 2011 where my 2010 Top 10 Favourite Images made it to the Top 10 Blog posts of the year it seems that 2011’s version was just as popular in 2012. In fact I have been completing this difficult task of choosing just 10 representative images from the entire collection of work I produced throughout the year for 5 years now. You can also find 2008 here and 2009 here
And last week I continued the habit by releasing my 2012 Top 10 Favourites.
#06 5 Steps to Framing a Fine Art Photographic Print
Shortly after releasing the above article on how I Matte my Fine Art Giclée Photographic Prints I followed it up with this detailed description on the steps I take to then Frame a Matted Print. As discussed in the article I take as much care framing my prints that I do with Matting and always ensure I use the very best of materials and frame the prints in such a way as to not jeopardise the prints longevity. Like the original Matting article this post served two purposed, one to give art buyers confidence in what they were purchasing from me and two, give something back to the community by was of a tutorial. And it certainly seemed to resonate with you as it comes in at #6 of the most popular posts this year.
#07 A Donegal Landscape | Light Upon Mount Errigal – Donegal, Ireland
The second of only two images that make it into my Top 10 Blog Post list this year. Should that worry me? 🙂 Interestingly both images here are from the same trip to Donegal in September, 2011. This image of Mount Errigal during some very stormy and rainy weather was published in late January 2012 and went on to be one of my Top 10 Favourites of the year.
At the time of publishing the image I wrote that “I was traveling to the Poison Glen and as I was driving I was fascinated watching the landscape change constantly as the clouds swept across the sky overhead. Every so often the sun would peek through the clouds and cast a warm glow on some new part of the landscape. Mount Errigal was on the way to the Poison Glen and so I passed it during this constantly changing light. Being from the east coast of Ireland mountains form somewhat of a curiosity for me. The east coast of Ireland is very sheltered and has very few mountain ranges and none of a height to compete with this or indeed many others along the north and west coast of Ireland. So what else could I do but stop!”
#08 A Customer Story | Malahide Castle & Gardens
Only published a couple of weeks ago this article has already accumulated a lot of visitors. I had promised to write more of these Customer Stories last year but unfortunately did not get to any but this one. This was however a major commission for me both in terms of the length of the project; being 12 months and the profile; a national landmark and tourist visitor centre so I felt it was important that I share the experience.
#09 5 Things I dislike about my new iMac
Yet another Apple iMac Post. This, the 3rd of a 4 part series discussing my new 2012 27″ iMac published in October 2011 still attracted visitors throughout 2012. By the time of this article I had been living and working with the iMac for a month and wanted to share some of the things I disliked about working with it and an all-in-one in general. These issues included the Sheen off the Gloss Screen, the lack of connection and the fact that they were all around the back, and an annoying behaviour of the headphone socket. Yes all very small issues indeed but grating nevertheless.
I also published the 4th and final part of this series which covered the 5 things I like about my new iMac about two weeks later and that has received a 3rd less visits. Hmmm is that a commentary on society, that we search for the negative before the positive? 🙂
#10 New Camera Gear – The What’s and the Why’s | Part 1
In what I described as “positively a cornucopia of new photographic equipment” in this 1st of a two part series from May I outlined the 1st half of the largest ‘gear’ purchase I have made in recent years. While I outlined the fact that I would not consider myself a ‘gear head’ and vision is more important; I did discuss not only what I had bought but the reasons behind each item. This discussion outlined the reason I replaced my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS with it’s much lighter f/4 non-IS brother. The logic behind the 24-105 f/4 IS lens purchase. And finally I covered the acquisition of a super-light Feisol Tripod and Arca Swiss p0 Monoball head.
In the second part of this post, which also proved very popular with you I finished the article by outlining my reasons behind buying not one but two camera bags; the F-stop Loka and the Think Tank Sling-O-Matic 20. And finally I grouped some miscellaneous items together including the Hitech 10 stop filter, a set of soft ND-Grads and some reflectors.
And there you have it another year of me sharing my images and ramblings with you here on the blog, and those that you seemed to have found most interesting. I do you hope to stick around for the ride in 2013!
